30 Best PS3 Games of All Time

The best PS3 games are a good example of how the console’s library got better as more games came out. As is the case with many systems, the launch lineup wasn’t what many people would call “stellar.”

But over time, enough good games came out for the PS3 that almost anyone could find something they liked. There are a lot of games to play, from RPGs to shooters to scary games.

With the PS Plus Premium games list growing and users being able to stream certain PS3 games from the cloud, there may never have been a better time to go back to the PS3’s games.

So, with that in mind, here are the 30 best PS3 games of all time, according to us.

30. Ultra Street Fighter 4

Before 2009, fighting games were in a bad place, but Street Fighter 4 brought the series back to where it started, with the more famous characters from Street Fighter 2.

It had a strange, but ultimately appealing, highly stylized art style, and online play was good enough that the genre didn’t feel like a total nonstarter.

It was the most important game in the genre until Ultra Street Fighter 4 came out, which most people think is the best Street Fighter 4 game because it has a lot of characters and a good mix.

It hasn’t been as important as it once was, but it is still one of the best PS3 games and one of the most important games in the history of the genre.

29. Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time

Since 2002, Ratchet & Clank, made by Insomniac Games, has been a strong, long-lasting part of PlayStation’s series.

Even though the first Ratchet & Clank game came out on the PS2, six more were made for the PS3, and we think A Crack in Time is the best one.

Even though the series has mostly stuck to the same formula, A Crack in Time is one of the best games in the series because of its moving story and great gameplay improvements.

The option to try out new parts to customize your weapons and the addition of Hoverboots give both combat and exploration a lot more mechanical depth.

A Crack in Time is one of the best action games for the PS3. It has great graphics and a moving story that really gets to the heart of why the title characters are so popular and have been for so long.

28. Batman: Arkham City

Batman blew the doors off what the Arkham series could be by making a sequel that was bigger and more interesting than the first game, Arkham Asylum, which was still great.

Batman: Arkham City is not only based on the idea that “more is better,” but it also finds surprising and fun ways to bring together different characters from the Batman mythos into one amazing journey.

Asylum’s core combat, exploration, and great voice cast are still in City, but the game comes up with new ways to put scary challenges in Batman’s way.

There are a lot of great villain side-mission stories, a more varied overworld, and a deeper, more emotional story as Mark Hamill’s Joker and Kevin Conroy’s Batman continue their fight from the first game.

Arkham City solidified Rocksteady’s version of the Dark Knight in almost every way.

27. LittleBigPlanet 2

LittleBigPlanet 2 is a huge improvement on the first game in Media Molecule’s platformer and creation series.

There are more choices for designing levels, and you can even make a game within a game.

Even though it has a story mode with more than 50 levels, we liked it more than the original LittleBigPlanet because of how well it could be customized.

This showed us how Media Molecule has continued to explore the creative possibilities in Dreams.

26. Portal 2

Portal 2 is the best example of what a sequel can be. It took the basic idea of the first one and turned it into a true classic.

The tasks and stories are more complex and the writing is funnier. The campaign is also longer and has more puzzles.

Throw in one of the best stand-alone co-op campaigns ever made, and you have an all-time great full of unforgettable moments, from the GLaDOS potato sequence to the final moon shoot.

It’s been more than 10 years since this amazing sequel came out, and it’s hard to think how a third part could top this modern classic. Still, we’d love for Valve to give it a shot.

25. Resistance 2

Fall of Man, the first Resistance game, did well for a launch title, but the sequel was a better example of what Insomniac Games and the PS3 could do. After Army Ranger Sgt.

Nathan Hale gets sick with the Chimera virus and saves England, he gets back into the fight. This time, after a Chimera attack, they will fight in the United States.

Resistance 2 made better use of its settings than the first game, putting players in the middle of a small American town.

The result is a focused action game that throws groups of different Chimera at the player, some of which, like the Grim, create short horror segments.

Using Hale’s Chimera skills, players guide him through his second meeting with the relentless alien force.

Resistance 2 was better technically and looked better than Fall of Man. It also had a more interesting story that got people excited for the last game in the series.

24. Alien: Isolation

Amanda Ripley is on a journey to find out what happened to her mother and why.

When the Nostromo’s flight recorder shows up, Amanda can’t help but take it, so she goes to the Sevastopol space station to get it.

When she gets there, she finds a deserted station and finds out quickly that people aren’t the scariest thing in the sky.

Alien: Isolation was everyone’s first experience with Giger’s xenomorph in a good horror game.

The alien giant that runs around the space station is a tough opponent that Amanda can’t beat with any of her tricks or tools. It’s a race to get out of the Sevastopol station before the alien threat kills you.

We haven’t had a reason to fear the xenomorph since Alien, but Creative Assembly brought the famous bad guy back in a scary way.

Some things, like the android enemy, can slow down the game, but Alien: Isolation is a good horror game that adds to a well-known film world.

23. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

In a not-too-distant future, the world of Deus Ex: Human Revolution is full of people who have been changed in some way.

Adam Jensen, a former Chief of Security who was left for dead and then forced to get augmented, is at the center of the latest Deus Ex stories.

When a group of augmented criminals called the Tyrants crash a party for Sarif Industries’ newest augmentation, Jensen finds himself in the middle of a plot that will force him to choose a side.

Jensen can turn himself into a supersoldier by using the most up-to-date enhancement technology.

Players can play Deus Ex: Human Revolution however they want, either as a gun-toting action hero or as a stealth agent who uses wits and technology to beat his enemies.

Players can make up their own stories as they guide Jensen through a world divided by the augments that keep him living.

22. Journey

You don’t have to be armed to the teeth and face waves of scary monsters in every good game. As Journey showed, sometimes all that matters is getting from A to B.

Thatgamecompany takes players on a trip through a colorful world full of beautiful sights that is surprisingly hard on the heart. That’s because Austin Wintory wrote the music for the movie.

Journey has a very simple way to play, but it is still very fun. The point of the game isn’t to run away from an impossible enemy or figure out hard tasks.

It’s all about the beautiful journey, which will stay with players long after they’ve finished the game.

Along the way, players may run into other people who pop in and out of their game, but they can’t talk to them because their PSN IDs are hidden.

It seems like a simple way to play with other people, but it lets you share this experience in a way that is surprisingly intense.

21. Dead Space

In space, no one can hear the horrifying, mutated, and reanimated bodies of the USG Ishimura’s crew tearing you apart.

As Isaac Clarke, a voiceless systems engineer, players are presented to a universe in the 26th century where people travel through space, crack planets, and settle other planets.

All of that is interesting and makes a great setting for Dead Space, but it only takes about 10 minutes of exploring the Ishimura, a planet-cracking mining ship, to understand that something scary will overshadow it all.

The necromorph is a unique creature that is hard to kill in the usual way. You can shoot them and make them fall, but if you want to avoid their horrible and dangerous parts, you’ll have to take them apart limb by limb.

Survival horror is at its best in Dead Space’s fighting, which requires players to hit their targets perfectly while they’re shaking with fear as a once-human monster crawls toward them.

Dead Space is a masterwork of sound design. The Ishimura comes to life with space monsters hiding in every corner.

20. Tokyo Jungle

You wouldn’t be wrong if you didn’t notice Tokyo Jungle. It looks like a B-level game, with blurry graphics and blocky models all over.

But you don’t play Tokyo Jungle for the graphics. You play it so you can direct a pack of beagles fighting a lion.

You play it to put silly hats on a giraffe.

You play it because Tokyo Jungle is an addicting roguelike that keeps surprising you with new things and pushes you to get better at finding food and mates in an abandoned city.

It’s easy to play, and there are a lot of animals you can unlock.

This means you’ll get the hang of it quickly, but you’ll always be looking for the next piece of the puzzle.

19. Hotline Miami

Phone number In the 1980s, your parents always warned you about a game called “Miami.”

It’s a video game from an alternate world where Reagan is president for life and “The Running Man” is a real thing you can watch on TV.

Put on a rubber animal mask of your choice and go to one of a few dozen pixelated murder carnivals to kill every mook you see while the background colors pulse and a way-too-cool-for-you synthwave music plays.

Phone number Just don’t tell your parents that Miami is raw, punk rage, a hypnotic show of hyperviolence that is one step away from pure, unadulterated anarchy.

18. Burnout Paradise

When Burnout Paradise came out, games that worked on more than one device were always better on the Xbox 360. Not like that.

Criterion always made PS2 games look and sound great, and Burnout Paradise on PS3 still looks great.

It also changed the way Burnout worked by letting you race around an open-world city and the farmland around it.

But this is better than EA’s more current Need for Speed games because there are so many fun things to do.

It’s the little things, like trying to back your car into a parking spot with the brakes on (which gets you a grade) or trying to jump down the side of a mountain without crashing your car.

Even the few problems with the way the original game was put together were fixed by DLC fixes, making this a true Burnout-themed paradise. Also, the music was great.

17. Resistance 3

Over the course of the PS3’s life, the Resistance series went from being a good launch game to a poor sequel to an FPS masterpiece.

So, it’s too bad that Resistance 3, the first-person shooter masterpiece from the first line, was the last game in the series. Something about R3 is just so right.

This game stands out because of the way the alternate 1950s setting works with the crazy, but satisfying, alien weapons and the heartwarming story of a father saving his family.

Each stage is also well-balanced; there are few, if any, weak spots, and the fighting is as smooth as a gull from the Gulf of Mexico.

Every time you think you have it figured out, the story throws you a new situation or problem.

This forces you to change and learn more about how flexible the game is. Which you’ll happily do to get to the exciting end of Joe Capelli’s sad but hopeful story.

16. Yakuza 5

Lots of games talk about how big they are, but only the Yakuza games have a huge number of fun and weird things to do.

At its core, Yakuza 5 is a very serious story about the criminal underworld in Japan, where bad guys do bad things and good guys rip their shirts off in one quick move to stop them in hand-to-hand fighting.

But Yakuza 5 is more than just a fight game. It’s also a taxi driving simulation, a hunting game, and a simulation of being a Japanese pop idol (with dance fights!).

It has baseball minigames, ramen cooking minigames, stand-up comedy minigames, an arcade with nearly full versions of Virtua Fighter 2 and Taiko Drum Master, and so much more. All of these things are fun in their own ways.

Yakuza 5 has a lot of both serious crime drama and complete silliness. It may not be the best place for beginners to start, but it has more than enough to keep anyone entertained.

15. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

Every time Nathan Drake goes on a journey, the odds are against him and the setpieces get bigger.

Even though Uncharted 3 and A Thief’s End, the last game in the Nathan Drake series, did a good job of following this pattern, Among Thieves is still Drake’s most memorable and best story to date.

Nathan Drake goes on another adventure in Uncharted 2, this time with his father figure Victor “Sully” Sullivan and a bunch of other interesting people.

He is now looking for the legendary Cintamani Stone instead of Sir Francis Drake’s wealth and the lost city of El Dorado.

But a Nathan Drake adventure wouldn’t be a Nathan Drake adventure if he didn’t get into trouble. A bunch of problems.

Even though Among Thieves is not the most technically amazing game in the series, it has so many great moments that it could be the most memorable.

Even though Naughty Dog tried, it could never match the excitement of the train section, though the sinking ship in Uncharted 3 came close.

Uncharted 2 was one of the best PS3 games because it had the right amount of action, drama, and adventure.

14. Persona 5

The Persona series has had its ups and downs, but Persona 5 for the PS3 and PS4 is one of the best games in the series.

It’s also one of the must-play games that have come out for the system in its nine years.

What tells us this?

Even though the game came out a long time ago, the main character, Joker, is still looking for work. Most recently, he was a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Shin Megami and Persona are both weird role-playing game series, and Persona 5 isn’t much different. It’s a pretty game with a fun art style that makes you feel like you’re going through a manga that’s alive and well.

During discovery, text bubbles and sound cues pop up on the screen, creating a sort of welcome chaos that brings the world to life.

As Joker, you’ll spend a lot of time wandering around high school, which is a nice break from the crazy, screen-cluttering turn-based battles. Persona 5 is not a game that everyone will want to play.

Role-playing parts can get pretty deep, and combat can be a chaotic mess of pop-ups, but it all feels right at home in the Persona series and can be pretty easy to get used to.

When you’re not dealing with the ups and downs of high school, you’re fighting demons and other bad guys in action that’s surprisingly fast-paced and keeps getting better in a series that’s been around for decades but is just now getting its time in the sun.

13. Dark Souls

Dark Souls is known for being one of the hardest video game series ever made, so many people won’t be able to try it out before it scares them away.

It’s true that it’s a hard series that takes a lot of patience and timing, but that’s part of what makes it so entertaining.

Dark Souls is technically the second game in the series that started with Demon Souls, but it is a huge improvement over its predecessor. It uses a lot of the same ideas in terms of how it works, but it looks better.

The multiplayer features include a co-op mode where players can be called into another game to work together and a PvP mode where players compete against each other.

Even though Dark Souls II made fighting smoother in some ways, the first Dark Souls still has a lot going for it that makes it a PS3 classic.

Some might say that better level design and a more interesting story make it necessary to keep going through the difficult combat, which takes the self-control to not just “run and gun” through each level.

Dark Souls can be hard, but it’s a great PS3 game that has led to a number of sequels, including Bloodborne, one of the most famous PS4 exclusives, and Elden Ring, which is already one of the best games ever made.

12. God of War III

With this PS3 game, the first God of War series comes to an end, and Kratos faces off against the Gods of Olympus for the last time.

The result is a real sequel to the PS2 and PSP games, with better graphics, gameplay, and set pieces.

In God of War III, the mythology of the series is expanded. Once again, the God of War faces off against Titans, Gods, and other beings from Greek mythology.

SIE Santa Monica doesn’t hold back on the usual blood and violence of the series. By the end of the game, the Spartan hero will be covered in a thick layer of his enemy’s blood.

God of War III is the real ending to Kratos’s story, which he has been fighting for and which he gets. Even though Kratos’s enemy could be cut, pounded, and torn apart forever, the game was a massive experience that, once played, is hard to forget.

God of War III’s ending is worthy of the Ghost of Sparta. It has beautiful graphics and great boss fights.

11. Mass Effect 2

Before players found reasons to dislike BioWare and Electronic Arts, the two companies worked together to make great games like Mass Effect 2. After Commander Shepard’s unforgettable debut, space drama has never been so exciting.

For Mass Effect 2, BioWare looked at what people didn’t like about the first game and made a few changes to make it less clunky and easier to play.

Those who finished the first Mass Effect could continue the story of their version of Shepard by importing their saved games.

The story of the Mass Effect games kept going strong through the end of the second game, which led to a slightly disappointing end to the trilogy.

There was a lot of drama and excitement in Mass Effect 2, which helped move Shepard’s story forward.

With the return of the Morality meter, players could turn Shepard into an intergalactic hero or a cold-hearted rogue, which changed how characters interacted with each other and how story arcs ended in big ways.

Mass Effect 2 is better in every way, from how it plays to how it tells its story, so it has to be on this list of the best PS3 games.

10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

No matter what you think of Call of Duty as it is now, you can’t deny that Modern Warfare was a turning point for games.

Not only did it bring back the tired FPS genre and turn Call of Duty from an OK shooter to an OMG shooter, but it also set a standard for online games and had an amazing 8-hour story that few games have been able to match since.

Modern Warfare is full of things that will stick with you, like the ghillie suit scene, the first scenes on the tanker, and the ending.

And guess what?

It still looks great. While later Call of Duty games have tried to build on Modern Warfare by making the action bigger and bigger, this game is a good example of how to have fun with less.

There’s no filler in this game; it’s just 8 hours of smooth FPS action that is still better than everything else out there.

9. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

Old Snake’s back may be stiff and he may snarl more than he used to, but he still has it where it counts. MGS4 still shows off the technology capabilities of PS4, just like MGS2 did for PS2.

But, most importantly, it uses changes in technology to make the game better. The camouflage suit is especially fun to use and comes in handy when you’re trying to sneak around.

You could say that Kojima and his team made the story too complicated and movie-like (especially in terms of how long the cutscenes were), but the characters and bosses are all memorable, and you can’t deny the drama at the end of the game.

But if one scene had finished differently, this would probably be even higher on this list. If you have a PS3, this game is still a must-have.

8. XCOM: Enemy Unknown

XCOM: Enemy Unknown is one of the best PS3 games in terms of value for money. It has action that will keep you on the edge of your seat, gameplay that will satisfy your brain, and a story that will pull you in emotionally.

All of this happened without any real-time movement. Its turn-based squad-shooting can be played right away, even by people who don’t know anything about strategy, but it has a lot of depth once you get past its easy-as-a-hug learning curve.

Even though it looks like a board game, the skirmishes and ground wars play out like real-time Hollywood blockbusters.

It takes 20 minutes to learn how to play, but you’ll be obsessed with it for months. A real treasure.

7. Wolfenstein: The New Order

Wolfenstein: The New Order screams with power and purpose from the moment it starts. The series has never been subtle, and this game is no different.

You’re still BJ Blazkowicz, you’re still the Nazi Hunter Supreme, and you’re still very good at your job.

But what should be a dumb shooter suddenly looks at the human cost of endless war and soul-crushing fascism, and thanks to the team at MachineGames, it’s pretty good at both.

You’ll come for the dual-wielding MP-40s and old-school action, but you’ll stay for the branching story and well-developed characters. You’ll also shoot Nazis on the moon. Let’s go.

6. The Walking Dead

Here’s something interesting. Zombies are one of the most common – and overdone – tools in horror games, but they aren’t scary very often.

Most of the time, they are slow, meaty target practice. The Walking Dead, on the other hand, goes back to what makes zombies and good horror in general so scary: real, slow-burning, emotionally strong drama about real people.

The Walking Dead has some of the best writing and acting in games, as well as some of the hardest, almost impossible moral choices.

It puts you in a nightmare position and forces you to try to make the least-worst of it. You’ll worry about every choice and talk, but in the end, you won’t know what to do.

No one is a hero here. Just the ones who are still living.

5. Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition

When talking about how great Street Fighter 4 is, there are many things to talk about. There’s a perfect mix of depth that can be explored in many different ways and can be picked up and played right away.

There is perfect balance among the 39 fighters who are now on the list.

There’s a great sense of fun in the game’s fighting animations and character designs, which fit perfectly with how each world warrior plays and moves.

There is the Focus Attack/dash-cancel technique, which is both subtle and powerful.

But Street Fighter 4 has something much easier going on that isn’t talked about nearly enough: it’s just a lot of fun, plain and simple. There’s no doubt that this is the best action game of the last ten years.

4. GTA 5

GTA 5 is probably the biggest change to Grand Theft Auto since it went 3D.

It takes the best parts of what has always made the series great, breaks them down, and puts them back together in a new, fresh, more thought-out way.

The three-protagonist setup does a lot more than just mix up the characters.

It creates complex dramatic irony as the three different plots twist and clash, and the player is in charge of all of them.

Even better, you can now play GTA however you want and it will still make sense.

With the naive nice guy Franklin, the violent family man Michael, and the kind psychopath Trevor, all play styles can be accommodated without breaking the game’s world, which is incredibly well made.

As for that world, there has never been an open video game setting that was so big, so full of different things, so well put together, and so completely and vibrantly responsive.

Immersing yourself in the game for days, or maybe even weeks, is the only way to really understand its subtleties.

For now, just know that in terms of look, feel, and function, it’s the most like the real world that games have ever been.

3. Red Dead Redemption

Is GTA 5 better than Red Dead?

It’s very close.

San Andreas in GTA is a more detailed world, but the idea and story of Red Dead are so beautiful that they win for us. Few other games make you feel like you’re in such a wonderful place and time.

All of your actions and interactions in its rough landscapes make sense, and it’s the perfect setting for John Marsden’s hard story of unfairness and loss.

The story ends with one of the most daring and memorable endings of any game ever made.

Ok, enough with the flowery language. It’s also really cool to be a badass criminal like Clint Eastwood.

It’s like a live Sergio Leone movie because you can shoot angry cowboys, lasso bad guys, and ride your horse through the brush.

The set pieces are right out of the best classic Westerns, and the simple music fits the action on screen perfectly. Red Dead has everything you need.

2. BioShock

BioShock didn’t come out for PS3 right away, but good God, was it worth the wait. It was the first truly defining AAA game of the last generation.

It set standards for gameplay depth, world-building, atmosphere, and story ambition that many other makers spent the next seven years desperately trying to match.

BioShock is different from everything that came before it, and its opening scene shows that.

Making a world like Rapture that fits together well is a huge accomplishment in and of itself, but making sure that the RPG-shooter action is always adding to the world’s realism and immersion?

That’s just a way to show off.

And don’t forget the powerful music, which combines stirring strings with perfectly chosen vintage recordings to make a soundscape where coherent, moving tone is king.

BioShock is as unique and fully realized a vision as you’ll find in gaming. It has a setting and story like no other, and the action is both thought-provoking and exciting.

1. The Last of Us

It makes sense that the best game for the PS3 came out near the end of its life. It’s a masterpiece of moving, grown-up storytelling and a clever, gameplay-driven story that uses the graphical power of a fully mastered console as much for emotional resonance as for visual impact.

It could be said to be the culmination of everything that AAA gaming became over the last generation.

The Last of Us drops the player into a beautiful, nuanced, and all-too-believable nightmare world. The player is given the tools to live, but not the tools to fight back in a powerful way.

Every encounter and accomplishment in the game is important, not because it’s supposed to be a show or because it’s based on a cartoon hero, but because the player has to use their own senses and wits.

And that’s just the beginning of how The Last of Us makes you feel like you’re in the same situation as the characters.

It’s a perfect game made by a first-party Sony creator at the top of its game (so far), and no one with a PlayStation 3 should miss it. In fact, it was the end of a generation.